Q&As

Can the use of generative AI lead to trade mark infringement? What steps can brand owners take to mitigate the risks of infringement?

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Produced in partnership with Justine Flockhart and Will Holmes of Hansel Henson Limited
Published on: 16 November 2023
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Generative artificial intelligence (AI)—in particular those AI tools that create unique images and text—presents powerful and exciting opportunities for creators, providing businesses and individuals with the ability to almost instantly create new logos, taglines and businesses names. But the products of generative AI might well infringe the rights of existing brand owners, landing the user of the new AI image or text in hot water.

As the output of AI or a large language model is based on its training and data inputted into it, it can easily produce infringing material as its output as this is based on existing material. Indeed, at the time of writing, Getty Images is suing Stability AI in the High Court, and one of the grounds is trade mark infringement as some of the allegedly infringing images contain the Getty Images watermark. For more information about this case, see News Analysis: Getty Images taking

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